of Elizabeth, William Harrison gave a lively description
of the plenty and comfort of the great hostelries. The continent of
Europe, he said, could show nothing like them. There were some in which
two or three hundred people, with their horses, could without difficulty
be lodged and fed. The bedding, the tapestry, above all the abundance of
clean and fine linen was matter of wonder. Valuable plate was often set
on the tables. Nay, there were signs which had cost thirty or forty
pounds. {82} In the seventeenth century, England abounded with excellent
inns of every rank. The traveller sometimes in a small village lighted
on a public-house, such as Walton has described, where the brick floor
was swept clean, where the walls were stuck round with ballads, where the
sheets smelt of lavender, and where a blazing fire, a cup of good ale,
and a dish of trout fresh from the neighbouring brook, were to be
procured at small charge. At the larger houses of entertainment were to
be found beds hung with silk, choice cookery, and claret equal to the
best which was drunk in London. The innkeepers too, it was said, were
not like other innkeepers. On the continent the landlord was the tyrant
of those who crossed his threshold. In England he was a servant. Never
was an Englishman more at home than when he took his ease in his inn.

"Many conveniences which were unknown at Hampton Court and Whitehall
in the seventeenth century, are to be found in our modern hotels.
Yet on the whole it is certain that the improvement of our houses of
public entertainment has by no means kept pace with the improvement
of our roads and conveyances. Nor is this strange; for it is evident
that, all other circumstances being supposed equal, the inns will be
best where the means of locomotion are worst. The quicker the rate
of travelling, the less important is it that there should be numerous
agreeable resting-places for the travellers. A hundred and sixty
years ago a person who came up to the capital from a remote county
generally required twelve or fifteen meals, and lodging for five or
six nights by the way. If he were a great man, he expected the meals
and lodging to be comfortable and even luxurious. At present we fly
from York or Chester to London by the light of a single winter's day.
At present therefore a traveller seldom interrupts his journey merely
for the sake of rest and